Western states’ policies were responsible for the attacks by Paris gunmen last week, Syrian President Bashar Assad told a Czech newspaper, adding that countries should share intelligence concerning terrorism.

Assad reiterated his condolences to the families of the 17
victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris in an interview with
Czech newspaper Literarni noviny, excerpts of which were
published by state SANA news agency on Wednesday.

He said that Damascus sympathizes with the families of victims as
Syria is “one of the countries which best understand this
issue because we have been suffering from terrorism for the past
four years and we lost thousands of innocent lives.”

However, Assad reminded that Syria has been addressing the West
and “talking about these repercussions” since the
conflict in Syria began in 2011.

“We have been saying, you shouldn’t support terrorism and
provide it with a political umbrella, because this will reflect
on your countries and your people. They didn’t listen to
us,” Assad said.

He accused European policies of being responsible for the crisis
in Syria and said that the Paris attacks “brought European
policies to account, because they are responsible for what
happened in our region, for what happened in France, and maybe
what happened earlier in other European countries.”

Assad urged western nations to fight terrorism with “good
policies” and share intelligence.

“We should fight ignorance with culture and education, should
build a good economy to fight poverty, and there should be an
exchange of information among the countries concerned with
fighting terrorism,” he said.

Assad, who has a medical background, compared terrorism with
cancer, saying that you should extract it.

“The problem cannot be addressed in the way they addressed it
in Afghanistan, I mean what they did in Afghanistan in 2001. A
group of Congressmen visited Damascus at that time and they were
talking about invading Afghanistan in revenge for what happened
in New York earlier.

“I said this is not how you should do it, because fighting
terrorism is similar to treating cancer. You do not treat cancer
by cutting it, but by extracting it. What happened in Afghanistan
is that they cut the cancer, and the result was that it spread
much faster.”

The Paris shootings have prompted tens of thousands to take to
the streets in France and other European countries showing
solidarity with the victims. The attack on the Charlie Hebdo
magazine offices was triggered by cartoons published earlier by
the satirical left-wing paper that portrayed the Prophet
Muhammad.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday a record 3 million copies of the
magazine’s new edition – the first after the shooting – appeared
on French newsstands, with new caricatures triggering outrage
among Muslims all over the world, and threats from radical
Islamists.